Selective Laser Melting: Microstructure and Properties Optimization for Metals and Alloys, Metal Matrix Composites, Lattice and Hybrid Parts

A special issue of Metals (ISSN 2075-4701). This special issue belongs to the section "Additive Manufacturing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2025) | Viewed by 3303

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Engineering for Innovation, Università del Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: alloys; friction–stir welding; manufacturing engineering; microstructure; materials engineering; mechanical engineering; mechanical properties; heat treatment; materials; mechanical behavior of materials; welding; tensile test; severe plastic deformation
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E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering for Innovation, Università del Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: microstructure; mechanical behavior of metal materials; material characterization; mechanical testing; metal materials; alloy; coatings; welding; manufacturing process mechanics; heat treatment; corrosion; fractographic analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Engineering for Innovation, Università del Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: fatigue; fracture mechanics; thermoelastic stress analysis; experimental techniques; thermography; thermal methods for fatigue and fracture mechanics characterization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an interesting technology for the manufacture of high-performance metal components. A broad range of metallic alloys have been processed by SLM, such as aluminum alloys, titanium alloys, iron–steel alloys, nickel alloys, cobalt alloys, copper alloys, and their combinations or composites. Over the last decade, SLM has been significantly improved in terms of the technological capability and quality of the parts. Some SLM components have already been applied in many fields, such as in the aerospace, biomedical, and automotive industries.

To date, the state of the art shows some issues related to SLM parts. The most critical issue in SLM technology regards the relationship between the processing and microstructure of the SLM components that is underdeveloped, leading to loss of repeatability unlike the traditional manufacturing techniques.

Moreover, low plasticity and reduced fatigue performance mainly related to microstructural features, high residual stress, surface roughness, lack of fusion, high porosity, shrinkage, and distortion are reported in the state of the art. Several attempts have been proposed to improve the quality of the parts, but the challenge is still open because, according to the recent literature, it remains unclear how most of these defects and microstructural features relate to the many variables of SLM. 

The focus of this Special Issue is on exploring the possibility of tuning process parameters and post-processing techniques and heat treatments for the optimization of microstructure features, defects, and properties of metals and alloys.

We welcome all original research articles and reviews regarding:

  • SLM of metallic alloys (for aerospace, automotive, and biomedical applications);
  • SLM metal-matrix composites;
  • SLM hybrid metal components;
  • SLM lattice structure.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Paola Leo
Dr. Gilda Renna
Dr. Rosa De Finis
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • selective laser melting
  • processing parameters
  • post processing
  • heat treatments
  • microstructure evolution
  • porosity
  • residual stresses
  • roughness
  • fatigue properties
  • mechanical properties

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 7119 KiB  
Article
Design of New Energy-Absorbing Lattice Cell Configuration by Dynamic Topology Optimization
by Yongxin Li, Qinghua Li, Xingxing He, Shenshan Li and Yongle Wang
Metals 2024, 14(12), 1348; https://doi.org/10.3390/met14121348 - 27 Nov 2024
Viewed by 808
Abstract
In this study, we focus on the new energy-absorbing lattice cell configuration designed by topology optimization. To address the difficulty involved in the quantitative description of densification in periodic lattice plastic deformation, in this study, we propose characterizing the plastic densification state of [...] Read more.
In this study, we focus on the new energy-absorbing lattice cell configuration designed by topology optimization. To address the difficulty involved in the quantitative description of densification in periodic lattice plastic deformation, in this study, we propose characterizing the plastic densification state of a porous structure with the maximum ratio of two adjacent equivalent plastic moduli in the nonlinear static analysis process. Then, dynamic topology optimization is carried out with the maximization of the absorbed energy as the objective and the densification strain as the constraint to obtain the new topological configuration of the energy-absorbing lattice cell. Finally, additive manufacturing and quasistatic testing of the new energy-absorbing lattice structure and body-centered cubic and face-centered cubic lattice structure is conducted. The results show that, under the same conditions, the strain energy absorbed by the energy-absorbing lattice is approximately 3.5 times that absorbed by the body-centered cubic structure and 2.8 times that absorbed by the face-centered lattice structure with a low impact speed of 5 m/s. Full article
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19 pages, 9608 KiB  
Article
On the Effect of Exposure Time on Al-Si10-Mg Powder Processed by Selective Laser Melting
by Paola Leo, Gilda Renna, Neetesh Soni, Fabio De Pascalis, Teresa Primo and Antonio Del Prete
Metals 2024, 14(1), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/met14010076 - 8 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1668
Abstract
In this study, the effect of increasing exposure time on the microstructures, porosity, mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of selective laser melted sample Al-Si10-Mg powder was investigated. The samples were processed at the same power (375 W) and scan speed (2000 mm/s), but [...] Read more.
In this study, the effect of increasing exposure time on the microstructures, porosity, mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of selective laser melted sample Al-Si10-Mg powder was investigated. The samples were processed at the same power (375 W) and scan speed (2000 mm/s), but with increasing exposure time. Exposure time equal to 40, 50 and 60 µs was applied. The features of the analyzed samples show that with increasing exposure time, greater efficiency of the heat input was obtained, with a larger size of the melt pool and Si particles and lower porosity. Specifically, at the highest exposure time the melt pool showed an increase of 19% in width and 48% in depth, while the volume percentage of the voids decreased by 50% with respect to the lowest exposure time. Moreover, with the coarser microstructure being associated with a lower level of voids, the average hardness is similar for the analyzed samples. Corrosion resistance was evaluated, being one of the most important properties that may affect the service performance of Al-Si10-Mg alloy in the aerospace, marine and automotive industries. The potentiodynamic curves of the samples show that the voids occurrence is more significant with respect to the scale of the microstructure on corrosion behavior, with the sample processed at the highest exposure time being the more resistant to corrosion. The experimental techniques used in the present study were Optical Microscope (OM), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), hardness and X-Ray Computed Tomography. Full article
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